When approaching an alpine race, it is extremely important to put your helmet on time because other ropes animals or the wind can cause falling rocks and it would be stupid, of course, to take a stone before even reaching the foot of the track Before engaging in the wall, partner verification is essential

We check each other here the knot nodes if the belay device is properly engaged, the carabiner is securely locked, if the harnesses are tight Before starting to climb, we look again in the Topo, where exactly the way Especially what is the length of the first length, to find the relay It is also necessary to clarify if we climb alternately or if we always have the same leader because we must distribute the material accordingly In alpine climbing, especially in the tracks 'pleasure', there are of course scalloped points on which I can snap

But they are often more distant than cliff school for example When I carve an intermediate point, I have to pay attention to a few things The most important thing when I clip an intermediate point is that I really do it from a stable position I just have to avoid falling Once I have the stable position, I have to pass the rope properly in the quickdraw

That is to say that the rope that comes from below must enter the karabiner from underneath and out of it in my direction In extreme cases, if it goes the other way, it could happen that it falls off in case of a fall When I put the quickdraw in the point, I have to pay attention to two things in alpine climbing On the one hand, if it is a plate, that the finger of the carabiner is on the opposite side to the wall and in general I attach the quickdraw with the finger in the opposite direction to the direction of the climb For example, if I climb to the right, the finger should point to the left

This simply prevents A: the quickdraw can unclip itself from the point and B: that the carabiner can be loaded without the finger is closed And a good tip in mountaineering is the stretch quickdraw If a karabiner is not properly seated on a ridge and it may break under the load, I take the quickdraw and can avoid the problem or if the path of the rope is bad, to the point of generating a lot of friction, I can reduce the draft and take more pleasure Although the situation at the relay is always different, the construction of the relay is in itself easy The relay must be for us an island of security

When I want to build a relay, I need anchor points At least one but in general many that I connect to the relay It can be points drilled, pitons, jammers, straps passed around rocks, lunules There are many things I can use for this The relay must be redundant, that is if one of the anchor points breaks there must be at least one second that can prevent the fall

I build the relay so that in the end I create a central point and this central point is connected to all the anchor points of the relay And this is also the point on which I can cow myself and assure my partners There are two ways to build a relay Two fundamentally different structures It is on the one hand the series connection then the distribution of the forces

I use the serial connection when I have at least one solid anchor on the relay something like a drilled point The second anchor remains unloaded If at the relay I do not have a solid anchor point, so only mobile anchor points so I build what is called a triangulation, which guarantees the distribution of forces between the different anchor points The relay is certainly one of the most complex subjects in mountaineering but also the most important because it is the central point of safety throughout the ascent If I master it then nothing prevents the climb from being successful

The mountaineering races are of course not finished when you reach the summit, but only when you have come down safely or returned home Especially when the descent is by a complicated path, on gravel or abseiling, you have to be very careful